Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-11-Speech-4-062"
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"en.20100211.4.4-062"2
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"Madam President, in case C-42/07, the European Court of Justice examined whether Portugal had infringed EU law by prohibiting online gambling. Portugal had banned companies from providing games of chance on the Internet. The companies affected by this ban, such as BWin and Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional, went to court and fought their cases all the way up to the ECJ. The main argument was that, in so doing, Portugal had infringed the freedom to provide services and that, ultimately, any entrepreneur should be allowed to provide services across borders. In addition, every EU citizen should be free to receive services, which is a passive form of freedom.
In terms of its content, however, the freedom to provide services also includes a prohibition on discrimination, which means that the State is not allowed to put foreign service providers in a less favourable position than domestic ones. On the other hand, the freedom to provide services also contains a prohibition on restrictions, which means that any action which is not in itself discriminatory, but is intended to obstruct the entry of foreign companies into the market, is, of course, prohibited. Interestingly enough, the ECJ rejected this, saying that the freedom to provide services may be restricted insofar as it jeopardises the public interest, as it is necessary to combat fraud, guarantee consumer protection and prevent addiction to gambling.
Addiction to gambling is a major problem right now. In Germany alone, 200 000 people have been officially categorised as addicted to gambling, and young people are increasingly falling prey to this addiction. One study has found that people start gambling as early as 13. On the other hand, and we are familiar with this problem, private operators who comply with stringent requirements and have appropriate consumer protection procedures in place are categorically excluded from the market while, on the other hand, state-owned gambling monopolies are allowed to avoid Community competition, which gives them a greater advantage in the market.
I hope that this very difficult and polarised situation will be taken into account in the creation of a new regulatory framework and that the Commission will incorporate these key issues that I have raised."@en1
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